Author Archives: Rick Down

Richard John Down was named the New York Mets hitting coach on November 26, 2004. In 2004, he was the minor league batting instructor with the New York Yankees. Served two separate tours of duty as the Yankees batting coach from 1993-1995 and from 2002-2003. After leaving the Yankees in 1994, he was the hitting coach with the Baltimore Orioles (1995-1998), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1999-2000) and the Boston Red Sox (2001). Helped guide the 2000 Dodgers to a franchise record 211 home runs.

If you don’t move forward you got a lot more power in your legs. You should feel your legs. How about a little more flexing with your lower half. Do it. Get down, little bit more. Little more, there ya go. No get back. Alright. Now have no flexion with your legs, none whatsoever, and try to keep your weight ...

Your Head Follows Your Hands. Think about it.. As your hands go back your heads follows your hands. So if my hands go back my head goes back. If my hands go from high to low your head goes down and it’s not until after contact that your head will end up on your front. Just like throwing. Now this ...

Hitters are in complete control of how well they see the ball. Nothing can interfere with how you see the ball unless you allow it. If you have a poor swing mechanically, but you see the ball well, you still have a good chance to hit the ball. Conversely, if you have a great swing, but don’t see the ball ...

1. Stance – The stance is very important. Hitters should be off their heels, knees bent a little, and be in a balanced position. This gives them the confidence in their ability to get out of the way of the ball. A hitter’s stance should allow them to have their head and eyes in good position to see the ball. ...

Seeing the ball should be as easy as it sounds, but it is not. There are obstacles to seeing the ball that interfere with the hitter’s ability to focus on such a simple task. Learning how to control these obstacles is imperative to successful hitting. The following are reasons I have found, over the course of my career, to be ...

The most important aspect in hitting a ball is seeing it. A hitter can have a perfect swing, but if he cannot see the ball he may as well be hitting blindfolded. He can have the game’s most perfect swing, but not even the greatest can make contact without first seeing what they want to hit. Simply put, hitters that ...

During the winter months I am frequently asked to speak at coaching clinics regarding hitting. One of my favorite lectures breaks the mechanical process of hitting into 7 steps. In this article, we will look at how I approach explaining the mechanics of the hitting. I like to look at the mechanics of hitting broken down into 7 steps as ...

Hitting, without a doubt, is the most difficult baseball skill to learn. It has even been stated that hitting a baseball is the most difficult skill to master in all of sports. The combination of trying to hit a round ball with a round bat, squarely, is a very difficult task. Add two competing human beings into the equation, the ...

Featured Author: Rick Down

Richard John Down was named the New York Mets hitting coach on November 26, 2004. In 2004, he was the minor league batting instructor with the New York Yankees. Served two separate tours of duty as the Yankees batting coach from 1993-1995 and from 2002-2003. After leaving the Yankees in 1994, he was the hitting coach with the Baltimore Orioles (1995-1998), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1999-2000) and the Boston Red Sox (2001). Helped guide the 2000 Dodgers to a franchise record 211 home runs.